No-Nonsense Guide to Human Rights, The by Ball Olivia; Gready Paul

Author:Ball, Olivia; Gready, Paul
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781906523596
Publisher: New Internationalist

The 1994 genocide in Rwanda, perpetrated by huge numbers of people, presents an impossible situation for any court. More than ten years after the genocide, some 80,000 suspects remain detained under harsh conditions awaiting trial. Gacaca (‘grassroots’) courts were introduced as a modified form of community or local justice. They contain both a retributive and a restorative justice dimension, and operate alongside the ICTR and national courts. The scale of this experiment is huge, as over 500,000 people may ultimately be tried by gacaca courts. Amnesty International has questioned the procedural fairness of the gacaca system,15 but the only alternative may be to release all those awaiting trial.

Truth as justice and liberation

Irene Mxinwa, mother of one of the ‘Guguletu Seven’ killed by police in Cape Town in March 1986, reflects on her experience testifying at a human rights violations hearing:

‘The Truth Commission was so powerful... we felt that here is the place where we can actually find justice... It made us feel at home. It created a safe environment where we can actually feel that we are human beings and we have dignity, we have a name, we have a face... not only a story.

The way in which it brings the truth out, it is healing and you find justice in it... The way they conduct their hearings, their methods that they use to get information actually sets you free... the way that the truth came out, you could actually see and feel justice.’

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